The present invention relates to a multiple-purpose collapsible portable cart, for use in camping, hunting, search and rescue, and other outdoors activities. The cart can be easily assembled in a number of uses, and disassembled for easy transporting of the cart in a backpack or hand-carried bag.
Various single use carts exist for carrying canoes and small boats by hand. Other outdoors-oriented carts exist for carrying game. In addition, wheelbarrows and small carts are used for transporting gear at outdoors locations. However, none of the existing carts can be converted to a versatile portable cart which can interchangeably function as a rescue cart with a carrier for injured persons, as a portable canoe or boat cart which can be folded down and transported within the canoe or boat, as a game cart for transporting game over long, rough terrain, or as a gear cart, all of which can broken down into a carrying position, by hand or by back.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a versatile multi-purpose cart, which is quickly assembled or disassembled.
It is also an object to provide a multi-purpose cart, which quickly converts from one use to another.
It is further an object to provide a cart which as a stable, flat platform for supporting cooking devices, machinery, camera tripods and the like.
It is yet another object to provide a cart, which is stable during transport over rough terrain.
It is yet another object to provide a portable collapsible cart with minimal fasteners.
It is yet another object to provide a portable collapsible cart, which can be stabilized in a position of rest.
It is also an object of the present invention to provide a universally adaptable carrier cart.
It is yet another object of the present invention to provide a cart for carrying medical rescue stretchers, canoes and small boats by hand.
It is yet another object to provide a portable search and rescue cart adapted to carry a stretcher or other carrier for an injured person.
It is also an object of the present invention to provide an outdoors-oriented cart for carrying game or injured parties.
It is yet another object of the present invention to provide a small cart with a well for transporting gear at outdoor locations.
It is further an object to provide a collapsible, portable cart, which can be assembled with minimal fasteners.
It is also an object of the present invention to provide a versatile portable cart which can interchangeably function as a portable canoe or boat cart which can be folded down and transported within the canoe or boat, as a rescue cart for injured persons, as a game cart for transporting game over long, rough terrain, or as a gear cart, all of which can be broken down into a carrying position, by hand or by back.
It is yet another object to provide a portable cart which is either backpackable or which can be carried by hand.
It is yet another object to provide a carrier for transporting military equipment and ordnance.
It is yet another object to provide a cart-hauling clamp for pulling the portable cart behind a bicycle while resisting tipping over of the cart during directional change of the cart-hauling bicycle.
It is yet another object to provide a portable cart which can be used as a wheeled cart on terrain or as a ski cart on snow.
It is also an object of the present invention to improve over the disadvantages of the prior art.
In keeping with these objects and others, which may be apparent, the present invention relates to a convertible, multi-purpose portable cart, for use in camping, hunting, search and rescue operations and other outdoors activities, such as for carrying canoes and small boats by hand. It may also carry game, injured parties or be used for transporting gear at outdoors locations. It is a versatile portable cart which can interchangeably function as a medical rescue carrier, cargo carrier, portable canoe or boat cart, which can be assembled with interfitting parts and with minimal fasteners. It can be folded down and transported within the canoe or boat, as a carry cart for transporting game or injured parties over long, rough terrain or snow, or as a gear cart, all of which can be broken down into a carrying position, by hand or by back.
The cart is moved by manual pushing or pulling force applied to activate vehicle movement actuators, such as wheels upon terrain or skis upon snow or ice, wherein upon the exertion of force the wheels or skis cause forward or rearward movement of the portable cart.
The cart is easily assembled or disassembled by connecting its parts together, or optionally assembled from a pre-set storage configuration in a carry pack to an assembled structure.
The cart easily changes from one use to the other. For example, in one embodiment, a hollow cargo well may contain a second loose layer, which turns into a rescue stretcher when the second layer becomes taut when zipped up from a loose, relaxed state within the cargo well to a taut rescue stretcher for carrying injured persons thereon.
In an alternate rescue embodiment, clamps can be provided on shortened horizontal support members to hold medical rescue stretcher rails, and optional handles or pivotable kickstands can be attached by further clamps to the stretcher rails.
In military applications, the height of the vertical struts can be lowered to keep the injured person on the stretcher close to the ground, to avoid visible detection.
The portable cart is preferably under thirty (30) pounds, preferably twenty two (22) to twenty eight (28) pounds, so that it can be carried by hand or within a backpack over rough terrain. It is collapsible, so that it can be disassembled and carried in a canoe or small boat, and then reassembled with minimal assembly steps and parts, at another destination along the canoe or boat""s journey.
To prevent flat tires, its wheels are preferably solid core tires, which cannot get flat, with stainless steel bearings, over which the wheels rotate. A typical wheel has two press fit bearings adjacent to an integrally molded hub. While the typical wheel is about 2-3 inches wide, for transporting cargo or game on sand or granular terrain, the wheels may be wider, such as 4-6 inches in width.
For maneuverability in snow-filled winter scenes, optional ski members, including skis, are attached to vertical braces having a length corresponding to the radius of the cart""s wheels. The vertical ski braces are attached to the vertical struts where the wheel axles attach.
For hardiness, the material of the structural frame components is preferably a lightweight but resilient and strong material, such as, for example, 60-61 T6 fully anodized aluminum, or stainless steel. In a substantially pre-assembled optional embodiment, in a storage position within a carry bag, the vertical struts are connected to horizontal supports, which are further engaged with rails to hold a cargo well or rescue stretcher. Pivoting of the horizontal supports about each respective longitudinal axis to a position of rest biases the resiliently engaged rails to return to their natural position of use when released from the storage position.
These pivotable support and strut assemblies can be further strengthened by optional V-shaped braces, which are positioned where each vertical strut meets each corresponding horizontal support member.
The portable cart can hold up to 500 pounds, and for manual pulling easily pulls 300 pounds. The portable cart is durable to carry heavy weight over rough terrain, such as rock-strewn dirt trails or sloping riverbank surfaces.
To carry a canoe or boat, two horizontal load supports optionally include support cushions upon which the canoe or boat rests. The position of the horizontal load supports can be varied to accommodate various widths of the canoe or boat.
To function as a game or rescue cart, the frame, such as a pair of U-shaped rails which are joined end to end, is provided upon the horizontal load supports to form a rounded rectangular frame, over which a taunt, but slightly stretchable, bed of fabric is placed, such as canvas or other flexible material, i.e., plastic or netting. The bed includes sewn loops through which portions of the U-shaped rails of the frame are inserted. Other fabric fasteners such as clips, zippers or eyelets can be also used.
In an alternate embodiment, the boat support cushions are removable from the horizontal load supports and are replaced by a two-piece clamp, which attaches by at least one fastener, such as a pair of screws, to the horizontal load supports of the cart. Conventional stretchers or personal rescue carriers, such as Stokes-type baskets, are clamped to the cart within the clamps on each respective horizontal load support. In this embodiment, the boat support cushions are attached to a thin plate, such as of xe2x85x9 inch aluminum or otherwise, which has at least one fastener such as a pair of threaded studs, insertable with the respective hole or holes in the horizontal load supports, so that the boat support cushions can be removed and replaced by the stretcher-bearing clamps.
To function as a wagon cart with a well for carrying gear, a hollow fabric well, such as of canvas, is draped between said horizontal load members and over and around the front and rear U-shaped brackets. A cover may be provided to cover the gear therein. The well and cover can also be made of other suitable flexible materials, such as plastic, netting or canvas. An optional removable hard bottom substrate floor layer may be provided within the cargo well. While this floor layer may be of any hard material, materials such as lightweight aluminum, wood or marine polymer plastics are preferred.
Furthermore, the cargo cart may have an optional handle from which may be draped a further optional accessory cargo bag. In the stretcher embodiment, where the upper layer is fastened taut, the handle may have a removable headrest pillow.
Kickstands may be optionally provided to stabilize the portable cart during rest or during loading of contents thereon.
In yet another embodiment, an anti-tipping bicycle attachment is provided to attach the cart to a bicycle while preventing the cart from turning over during transportation.
In one embodiment, the cart has two wheels for cargoes weighing from 300-500 pounds. However, for heavier loads, such as for 600-1,000 pounds, an optional double axle version includes two pairs of overlapping wheels for heavier cargo. In this embodiment, the portable cart uses four wheels in the overlapped configuration, with an optional hard molded canister. In this overlapping, wheeled version, a long axle attaches a pair of front wheels and a short axle attaches a pair of rear wheels through the respective vertical supports, although the length of the axles can be reversed. Using four wheels doubles the carrying capacity of the cart, and the overlapped positioning of the pairs of wheels maintains a short wheelbase for compactness, for maneuverability and for climbing slopes or ledges.
In the four-wheeled embodiment, double parallel rails may be provided for additional structural strength. The overlapping, dual axle, four-wheel version gives the user extra pivot points on rough terrain. For example, pushing down upon the optional handle enables the user to lift the further away distal wheels off the ground. Furthermore, pulling upon the handle enables the user to lift the nearer, proximal wheels off the ground.
The accessory which is placed upon the vertical supports of either the two wheeled or four wheeled carts, such as the rescue stretcher, the boat cushion, the cargo cart, etc., can be attached permanently or by fasteners to each horizontal load support member of the portable cart. However, in an alternate embodiment, the horizontal supports have longitudinally extending channels to slide the accessories in on top of the horizontal supports. Furthermore, the accessory, such as a railed rescue stretcher, can be carried by a clamp which itself is attached to the horizontal support by insertion in such a channel.
This clamp upon each horizontal support member may be a one piece clamp with a full width top section and short end pieces which mate with and slip into a T-shaped slot channel of the horizontal support member. Alternatively, the clamp may have a full width bottom member which mates with and slides into a T-slot of the horizontal support. In yet another embodiment, two short identical clamp members are inserted into the T-slots of the horizontal member at the two ends. Moreover, the clamping sections can have spring-like gripping action to be retained upon tubular members, such as medical rescue stretcher rails, or the clamps can use fasteners such as fasteners, such as thumbscrews or ball plungers for retention.
In yet another embodiment, a covered canister can be held in place over the rails of the frame of the cart, in a stable position, by virtue of its weight being held in place upon the rails of the cart, wherein a concave, downward facing channel engages the linear, upper convex support surface of each rail.
Furthermore, the cart of the present invention can be disassembled and broken down for hand held or backpack transport and it can easily be assembled for its varied uses. Moreover, when a boat or canoe is carried, the cart has a precision balance feature that rotates the wheels to maintain the cart in a horizontal stable position.